HTC Sense 5.5 screenshots leak, revealing future features

Screenshots reportedly from HTC Sense 5.5 have leaked online, giving us an insight into what could appear in the next update for your HTC One, or perhaps debut on the HTC One Max, reported to be launching on 15 October.

One of the most distinctive features of HTC Sense 5 is BlinkFeed, the homepage that will crunch through news sources and bring you a curated collection of stories, as well as integrating things like TV information, calendar, plus Facebook or Twitter posts.

It's also one of the more controversial features, as some users wanted to stick to a regular homepage with widgets, folders, or a fancy wallpaper. Previously, you'd have to set up a new homepage to swipe across to to achieve that. You could set that as your default, but now it looks like you'll be able to turn BlinkFeed off completely.

That will come as no surprise: it's an option on the updated HTC One X, which allows you to set "BlinkFeed" or "classic" homepages.

It also looks like there will be some changes in the quick settings panels. We really like HTC's options, but it looks like you'll get more control over what hardware toggles are available via the shortcut in the notifications area. There's a "do not disturb" option, for example, as well as what looks like a direct option to edit the order in which they appear.

Elsewhere it looks like the camera interface is slightly tweaked, with Zoe moving into the options list, which also mentions dual capture. We can only guess that this is the same as the Samsung feature that will let you capture a photo from the front and back cameras at the same time, adding your face into a funny scene, or whatever.

There's also a change to the multitasking/recent apps view, with the thumbnails now filling more of the page, leaving smaller gutters. However, in the recent apps view you can also see the camera viewfinder app - and that appears different from the leaked camera view, so it's far from definite what's going to change.

There are also some leaked keyboard shots which look to expand on the options for adding smileys to your messages, although this appears to add an extra line about the keyboard meaning less space in the messaging window: we hope HTC isn't about to steal a line of screen space just so you can add in a tiny monkey emoticon.

That's about it for the screens, if they are genuine, although there doesn't appear to be anything too dramatic here. We're expecting to see the HTC One Max launch on 15 October and hopefully, it will bring HTC Sense 5.5 with it. Of course, we'll bring you all the details of everything that changes once we get the official word.